Radical Community - Community Devotion April 2, 2017

RADICAL COMMUNITY

During perhaps the best reign of any King in the Old Country, there was maybe 40 years of peace and prosperity among the people of God, though some corruption of wealth and power had made even their best years difficult for the poor and most vulnerable in the land, while the King and others enjoyed the peace and prosperity.

Then came the teacher, who taught a different way – the Way of Agape Love – to be discussed next month… and people started learning that in spite of the empire values that the occupying and oppressive force had forced upon them, they could live out of love with one another… even under the yoke of the oppressors, they did not have to take on their values, but could resist by not participating in their way of living.  They learned a different way, a better way to be with one another in the world – The Teacher’s Way.

And after the Teacher was executed and it was told that He was raised, His student followers started living what the Teacher taught on how to live the Way of Agape Love – to be discussed next month… and the world around them was changed by it… and people came to be a part of the a Radical Community that lived it… and it was from around the Year 60 until about the Year 325 (265 years) that His Way was lived among people in the community… even though the Empire threatened and indeed, even cruelly persecuted and killed many of the them for living it… they lived it and it changed the world… the people were of ONE HEART AND SOUL… they were, indeed, a Radical Community based on the Agape Love taught, commanded and modeled by the Teacher…

 Accounts say that they virtually eliminated poverty by practicing RADICAL OWNERSHIP… so that as any had in abundance they gave to those who did not and “there was not a needy one among them”… Acts 4:32-35

 They made themselves Radically Available to the sick and many were healed… 5:12-16

They practiced Radical Inclusion, even to those who were once excluded by the Law to gather in the assembly because they were sexually different, whether by birth or by choice… 8:26-40

Many accounts say that they included people who did not come from their faith practice, even some considered pigs and dogs who were enemies and rivals, but they were welcomed in this community because their common bond was Agape Love, and that was all that mattered… 10:9-48

They also Radically Included foreigners into the Leadership, though they had not shared the same background of ethnicity or faith, and some of them gave their lives for their living of Agape Love… 6:1-7; 7:54-60

And some who once persecuted them, zealous about their own extreme faiths, experienced a Radical Transformation by this Way of Agape Love and joined them … 9:1-22

And some in the community did not trust them joining the movement, but others practiced Radical Advocacy on their behalf… they stood up for them and demanded that they be accepted by the body… 9:26-31

And their practice of Agape Love led them to practice Radical Generosity and Sharing, even with strangers far away, who were struggling to survive… 11:27-29

Those who were oppressed or exploited by others, even threatened with death were set free, to experience Radical Liberation… 16:16-24, 27

For 265 years this was experienced in the land occupied and oppressed by the Empire, until the Empire usurped the faith behind it and made it their own… it was then, incidentally, that the focus of Agape Love was largely lost for a focus on the institution, instead of living love with the people…

But there are still some who claim that Love Today as a better Way to live in the world…

 There was another time, many years later… the Year 640 to about 969 (319 years), when in that same land, the city flourished and there was some discrimination, but the people of the Prophet allowed people of other faiths to practice their faiths openly… there was peace and prosperity in the land, unity and mutual love and uplifting of people with one another…

Radical Community CAN happen.  It HAS happened!  People can come together in one heart and soul and actively commit on behalf of one another in love, so that there is Radical Community in which Radical Ownership, Generosity and Sharing, Radical Availability for healing and wholeness, Radical Inclusion of all regardless of differences, Radical Transformation, Radical Advocacy and even Radical Liberation!  It CAN happen!  It HAS happened! 

All it takes is an active commitment on behalf of one another, of ALL in the community, knowing that if ANY do not have wholeness, completeness and well-being… SHALOM… NONE truly have it… understanding that if ANY is in need, we are ALL lacking well-being… and seeing that ALL belong because we are better for our diversity and stronger for our unity… All it takes is people committing to be of ONE HEART AND SOUL… here, now… and WE can have Radical Community!